In some seasons flowering of the pollinating varieties in an apple orchard may be insufficient to guarantee set of an optimum crop. This may be a consistent seasonal problem, possibly due to there being inadequate numbers of pollinators planted in the orchard.
- More often, the problem only occurs in one season and is caused by the pollinators failing to flower adequately or in synchrony with the main variety.
- Biennial bearing is a frequent cause of poor flowering on some varieties used as pollinators.
- One temporary solution to this problem is to cut flowering branches from another orchard containing suitable pollinating varieties and introduce these to the affected orchard as ‘bouquets’.
- The branches are placed in large buckets of water between the trees and in the tree rows.